Coffee and Donuts with JWT Planning

20 April 2015

By Shaziya Khan, VP & Executive Planning Director (JWT Mumbai)

In
budget season it is appropriate to consider the views of someone who is fondly
called in many homes as “the finance minister”. Because typically the lady of
the house is given a monthly budget, which she is responsible for prudently
stretching across essentials (“monthlies”), value adds
(eg. premium food products for the child), occasional indulgences (eg. beauty
care) and gifts (eg. festive season must
haves).

Home
“finance minister’s” savvy:

Past research revealed that there are
several savvy measures women naturally, and somewhat discreetly, adopt on a regular
basis to manage their finances smoothly. To mention a few -

1.Women have a ‘secret’ pocket or area
where they save money for personal
spends or emergencies.

2.They keep their ear to the ground to
extract value when prices rise eg. instead of buying vegetables from the nearby
vendor they shift to buying from the whole sale market (or mandi) which sells
cheaper produce but at a faraway location

3.Buying bulk quantities of high quality
farm fresh staples like rice, wheat, lentils and oil and sharing across 5-6 households.

These long standing aspects of home
budgeting savvy have now expanded to decision making and aspiration across several
other spheres of life. And
interestingly, we notice, that these new facets are no longer discreet and
covert, but refreshingly candid
acknowledgements by women themselves in a JWT Sonar Survey on What Women Want
(SEC A, B, 20-45 years)

Expanded
decision making

On decision making – The JWT Sonar survey across Asia (India, China,
Indonesia) reveals that women believe they are the decision makers across a
range of products. When asked “in your household, who would make the
final decision about which product or service you were going to buy/use?” 70% of women replied “Me”
for the following categories: Buying a
Home appliances, Buying a new mobile phone or smart phone, Open a new bank
account. Over 50% of women replied “Me” for: buying life insurance policy and
travel. In China and Indonesia the figure is higher – with over 70% of women
making the decision on insurance policy and travel.

Expanded pre purchase
research

The
expansion observed in women’s purchase and decision making power is closely linked to their being better
informed. Our survey reveals that over 55% of women across Asia often do
pre purchase research using a variety of digital and non digital resources. The
top 5 sources of research are, in that order, search engine (like Google), recommendations
from friends/ family / colleagues, price comparison websites, brand / company
websites and advertising. Closely followed by product sample or demonstration
in store. (On a related note, a Google study pointed out that women tap 7
sources of information prior to decision).

Thus,
for today’s women (“just sitting, we search on mobile, and find everything”), purchase
intent and purchase behavior reveals new dynamism and even more savvy thanks to
easier accessibility to pre research avenues.

Is
there an underlying future trend at work here? The JWT Future 100 report says
“feminism is being rebooted in the digital era, across, all generations, with a
newly collaborative, open and empowered spirit”.

Ever green prudence and
fresh aspiration

Happily,
the prudence shown by women in the management of their monthly budget
continues. When asked “imagine for a
moment that you were given 350$ (in local currency) what would you do with it?”
Generally, Asian women would invest or save it for rainy day.

But the story does not stop at saving and
sacrifice. There is another chapter. There is a new and refreshingly bold articulation
of financial aspiration among Asian women. Over 40% of women have financial
goals like financial independence, advance career, and travel the world. Half
the women in Indonesia want to open their own business!

When
asked “what was the most expensive item you purchased for yourself?” Jewelry, cars, laptops, and smartphones tend to be
the most expensive items women have purchased for themselves. At an average cost of $ 656 in India, 880$ in Indonesia,
967$ In China.

In sum, the finance
minister across homes is better informed and more empowered than before. Her
careful prudence for household purchases and innate inclination to invest and
save now has the newly added facets of financial goals and purchases for
herself.

Initiatives by brands that champion these now
overt financial goals and provide savvy and timely enablers so that these goals
can be realized will forge a life long connection with women audiences.This article was first published in Hindu Business Line 6th Mar, 2015

By Shaziya Khan, VP & Executive Planning Director (JWT Mumbai)

What
holds the answer to this puzzle – what is in women’s hearts? It is not rocket
science, I can tell you, but just a few core values that mean the world to her.

The
quantitative data we gathered on this topic was brought alive poignantly by a
consistent pattern of qualitative ‘stories’ we heard in parallel. These stories
related to a daily event, common across most Indian households. An event most people take for granted. The exceptions being a few, loving folks who
embraced the event, in a fresh way. In case you’re wondering well, what is it, the first clue is lies in the
numbers, the second in the unpeeling of ‘stories’.

CORE
VALUES MATTER MOST

One
in two women across Asia (India, China, Indonesia) believe that a husband who
is respectful and supportive is the key to a happy marriage. When women were asked what are the Top 3
factors for a happy marriage? They replied in a consistent pattern:

Firstly, a husband who is respectful

Secondly,
a husband who is supportive

Thirdly, a husband who shares responsibility.

These
are the top 3 factors cited by almost 50% (one out of every two) women across Asia – India, China, Indonesia (
women 20 -45 years, SEC A, B).

Interestingly,
with the exception of China, in other Asian markets, getting along with in laws
is a factor of relatively lower importance for a happy marriage, and was cited
by less than 20% of women (1 in 5 women).

A
happy marriage relationship based on respect and support is a consistently stated
and explicit aspiration of today’s women. This aspiration is a solid foundation
for brands to build on, by asking how these can be manifested and enabled in
fresh ways. Cueing at least 3 related points of departure for future enquiries
by categories and brands as a next step.

1.
Firstly, how is respect and support of
the wife expressed through the lens of a particular category – applying the
category or brand filter to these values is a vital next step. For instance how
does food or finance or even beauty categories, to mention a few, apply this
finding. For instance, several financial brands support a daughter’s future /
foreign education. That is not surprising because as our study reveals - 65% of
women aged 20-24 years want to become financially independent and advance their
careers. However, the study also reveals that close to 45% of women who are 25
– 45 years want to become financially independent too! Across all age groups, 55%
of women in India want to be financially independent, and over 45% of women
want to buy a home and a car! Cause enough for brands to dig into how these
desires can be better fulfilled or enabled for women. Beyond continuing to
support daughters’ education & career, time to dig into what cues support
and respect of the wife, financially speaking?

2.
Secondly, there is scope for
understanding what are the deal breakers, deal makers, and hands down winners,
when it comes to respect, support and teaching values. For 80%
of Indian women, the number one factor of being a good mother remains ‘Teaching your children values and helping make them better
people’. And for 60% of Indian women it is a struggle to find a balance between
maintaining tradition and their desire to be independent and assertive. The
struggle is more intense in China and Indonesia where over 80% of women find it difficult to balance
tradition with independence. Tradition vs assertiveness, balancing vs
struggling, making the effort to teach values to children are evocative zones
of respect and support to be understood and advocated by brands, each in their
unique way. One
might ask, for the progressive matrimony brand or evolving mother brand or
modern local brand in Asia, what’s the next step that advances respect and
support in marriage and values in children?

3.
Thirdly, exploring the new bridge of shared
responsibilities between His & Hers. As home making and working
responsibilities evolve, and parenting becomes more hands on, what is the
emerging geography of chores? It is a fascinating and layered topography which is a mash up of what used to be simply his
and hers. Now, there’s his, hers, and
ours, either, swapping, to be decided, in flux, training, experimenting, trial period,
surprise zone, learning area, still adapting, tough times, “firsts”, getting
used to it, still …signs of what can become a fascinating insight mining exercise. That it
is desired, more - required, is
validated by another telling finding: 70% of women agree that usually “women are depicted as men would like to see them
rather than as we really are”.

In
sum, love and its expressions of respect, support, understanding & sharing
of responsibilities continue to be some of the deepest desires of women. With 50% of women across Asia affirming their
importance, there is much to be gained from addressing them actively, in fresh
ways.

TALE
OF TEA

Moving
onto sharing a “story” that brings alive what the numbers reveal. It is a story
we heard consistently in focus groups. Across similar socio econonomic strata,
with both younger and middle aged married women in India.

When
women are asked what is the one thing that would delight your heart, and give
you much happiness… initially with shy smiles, then hesitant, tender
expressions and finally with irrepressible giggles – we heard them give a
unanimous answer: we wish if our husband would occasionally surprise us by
making the cup of tea for us!

A
cup of tea?!

How
could “wish he occasionally makes a cup of tea for me” hold so much meaning for
the wives, we wondered initially! As we probed further, we learnt, that “wish
husband occasionally makes the cup of tea for me” phenomenon, emotionally
speaking ‘works’ for wives at several levels.

1.Husband understands the wife’s need for a break: he
understands that his wife needed a break from her unchanging routine and he
steps in and gives her that much needed break. In her eyes, through the simple,
and occasional gesture of making her a morning cup of tea, in her eyes, he symbolically
communicates a deep empathy towards her. Also, needless to say, as mornings are
a very busy time in most homes, it is a break at a very relevant time as well.
A true moment of respite and togetherness.

2.Husband provides wife an open and genuine
expression of appreciation: it is seen by her as a gesture of appreciation
for all that she has done; a welcome pause of acknowledgement and appreciation from
him, in what can otherwise by weeks, months, even years, of an always-on assembly
line of chores (completed yet unremarked upon, unless if there is a mistake, but
rarely, if ever appreciated when it goes off smoothly each time)

3.Husband embraces a supportive stance towards
role expansion: When he
makes her the cup of tea, the woman sees tangible evidence, not just living
room conversation, that her husband happily encourages and embraces a certain
amount of role expansion for both himself and his wife, in keeping with modern
times.

If
there is so much emotional meaning triggered by an occasional cup of tea, made
for the wife, imagine what more can be unpeeled as more aspects of shared
responsibility are tapped.

IN
SUM: Respect, support and shared responsibility is what matters most to wives. We’re all reminded, it IS about these few
core values when it comes to understanding what women want. That’s not rocket
science. But it rarely is!

Especially
when we’ve set out to understand what’s in their heart!

(While
you ponder that quietly, we are putting together the third module on what’s in
their pocket)

This article was first published in Hindu Business Line 27th Feb, 2015

By Shaziya Khan, VP & Executive Planning Director (JWT Mumbai)

“What
do women want"

It is a question that has
alternately vexed and fascinated the world!

At a recent conference, a
global marketing head travelling from the USA to India, for the first time,
remarked with a smile - after his first consumer home visit : I
learnt today that the emotional feeling of being the father of 3 daughters is universal. (His
meeting, serendipitiously, happened to be with a dad, who like him,
had 3 teenage daughters.) His concluded with a smile, two dads from
different corners of the world, and at opposite ends of the socio –
economic spectrum, and with totally different experiences - were
basically going through the same journey!

In short, that fellow feeling
of trying to understand todays’ evolving woman unites us all.

And it is not just fathers, but
also mothers, husbands, and the women themselves too, by the way, striving
to get a good grasp on this present day universal quest. All needing
to step back, ponder, and understand, at least a little
bit, what women really want.

For marketers, who
have skin in the game and realize the game is evolving
rapidly - the question is more imperative than ever.

Past Asian studies have shed
some light on this rapidly evolving target group. For instance,
summarizing Asian women rather optimistically
as “holding up half the sky” or,
more pessimistically, and worryingly, as “simmering
within”. The slant of this thesis by JWT (across India, China,
and Indonesia) is to provide a more holistic view
of women, rather than a simplistically positive
or negative one.

This JWT study (across
women SEC A, B, age group 20-45 years) aims at drawing out a
well-rounded picture of the emerging chrysalis. And then
sharing some of theimplications for those aiming to
help our subject, and the target group of much marketing effort, to
fly. What follows, is an individual focus, in three parts on - what
is on women’s minds, what is in their hearts and finally what is in their
pockets.

We learnt that what is on women’s minds is a widespread and
nuanced realization that their role in society, and more intimately, at
home and in family has improved for the better. In short, they agree that
women’s voice is being heard but they want more! Lets unpack why and how
this is so.

Firstly, an overwhelming 90% of women, agree that
women’s role in society is changing for the better. This point of view
is evidently based, less on whimsy or wishful thinking, than ever
before. Education and independence are cited as the
underpinning of women’s “new, improved” role in society. Nearly
50% of women believe that access to work and career and better education are
the top most influential reasons for their role in society changing. “Feel
that women today are more independent and are able to express themselves
better” as a respondent in this study put it.

Secondly, and very significantly, less than one in 5 women
agrees that better portrayal of women in the media is a
positive influence for women. In other words, when women were asked “Thinking
about your generation compared to your mothers, which three of the following do
you think have been most
influential for women?” their answers
are revealing. Women’s top influencers were grounded and real ones –
education and career. (Women’s portrayal in the media is NOT a top
influencer for this generation of women. Is there an opportunity for better
role models being portrayed, is a topic for discussion at another time). Both
the influencers– education and career, have their rewards and their challenges.
Making women who are influenced by them and traverse their
paths alive to their possibilities, yes, but in a very real and
practical sense. Hence words like “rights, challenges,
equality, respect, brave” pepper their feedback on womens’ evolving
role.

What is most heartening, is that women’s point of viewon
their role in society, is a nuanced view, not at all blind to the challenges on
the path. This was evident across several comments like this one, on the same
question. “They have a better say in family and financial matters though the
respect that they should get in the society is yet to come”. Or another like
minded one. “Better living standards, more working women, more educated than
before, courage, brave, facing problems, working in all fields”.

We learnt from them, that what is on women’s minds is neither
a simplistically optimistic view of their role and nor a pessimistic one.
Happily, women of today embrace a grounded “you gotta have what
it takes” view on their generations role in family and society
at large. Hmmm. Makes “rose tinted” a thing of the past, doesn’t it.
The ladies see it as it is.

Thirdly, we learnt that a natural corollary to their
realistic and clear sighted world view is the desire women have for
their voice to be heard more and their opinions to be valued more.
Given that their world view is NOT a rose
tinted one, but an objective, realistic and
grounded one, alive to the BOTH rewards and challenges– women expect
and want their realistic, grounded voice to be heard MORE. This
unfulfilled desire for women’s opinion to be valued more came marching through
the numbers in the study. Nearly 50% women (that is one in two
women) agreed with the statements “I wish my opinion at work was valued
more” and “ I wish my opinion at home was valued more”. That is a big shift!
Because earlier researches for decades highlighted women want to be
valued more (alluding to self esteem, worth, and related issues); the
recent research is highlighting women want their opinions to be valued
more. Yearning for a recognition beyond simply their “place” to
a recognition of their perspective or point of view.

To sum up “what is on their mind” – women believe their
role in society has improved thanks to education and career. But there is still
headroom for women’s opinions
to be valued more both at home and in
the workplace. Simply put, ask the ladies! And then heed
their wisdom. What is your opinion about that? That is worth thinking
about! Till we share what is in their heart (the next module moves beyond
what is on women’s mind to understanding what is in their heart -
on women’s aspirations)

This article was first published in Hindu Business Line 20th Feb, 2015

30 October 2014

By Shaziya Khan, VP & Executive Planning Director (JWT Mumbai)

Brands can get closer to women consumers by
helping them nurture their goals of financial freedom

There are charming quotations.
There is fierce emotion.
There are tender moments of unspoken understanding.
On the topic of mothers and daughters, there is, in short, endless and timeless
poetry.
The slant of this piece though, is different.
One that revolves less around emotional dependence and more around financial
independence.
There is a new story bursting through consumer research.
Mothers and daughters, we learn, from a JWT study of (March
2014 online survey of women SEC A, B) have a common dream: Of financial
independence.
A top goal of approximately 42 per cent of women in their 30s and 40s is to be
financially independent. Nearly one in two mums is nurturing not just her home,
her family and her children but also her own desire to be financially her own
mistress. In the wake of this dream follow related ones such as wanting to
advance her career (40 per cent), open her own business (36 per cent) and
travel the world (45 per cent). As well as buy a home (37 per cent) and a car
(36 per cent).
Thus, women today are seeking an independent financial infrastructure that
supports their mobility, flexibility and freedom. Some of their key personal
duties done, they are seeking to flex their professional talents and skills
beyond the home sphere, step out into the world and earn their financial
independence.
But that is only half the story. These women are surrounded by, and possibly
raising, the next generation of women that dream alike.
Women in their early 20s are citing financial independence as a top goal too
(65 per cent). 'Girls just wanna have fun' now comes with some definitive ideas
of what's involved, including career advancement (61 per cent), opening own
business (47 per cent), travelling the world (42 per cent), buying a home (49
per cent) and buying a car (50 per cent).
Interestingly a few of these financial goals take precedence over getting
married (51 per cent). Getting married remains a top life goal - a 'suitable
boy' matters, of course! But 'suitable career' comes first.

Young women are stepping out into the world driven by clear-headed wishes for
financial independence. That they are today supported by mums who share the
same dream implies incredible support, drive and understanding to help achieve
their financial goals. (And possibly, provide wise counsel, to each other.).
Across all age groups, a whopping 85 per cent women believed that having a
career defines a 'successful woman' today.

Younger women (20-24 years), when asked, 'Thinking about your generation
compared to your mothers, which of the following do you think have been most
influential for women? ' cited opportunities for work and career (53 per cent)
and financial independence/spending power (43 per cent) as the most influential
drivers for change for women.

Mothers and daughters have a common dream, of financial independence.
This dream offers a relevant platform for brands to play significant roles in
the lives of mothers and daughters in support of their financial independence
and spending power. Ranging from enabler, educator, cheer leader, catalyst,
re-inforcer, call to action. And needless to say, sponsor or benefactor. What's
more, if the ladies insist on giving a treat or two, don't be surprised!
They've been wishing to do so for two generations.

This article was first published in Hindu Business Line July 4th, 2014

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JWT is one of the oldest and most prestigious advertising agency brands in the world, and was the first to be associated with anthropology and the study of consumer behaviour. It’s also the first ad agency in the world to recognize and embrace the new reality that, with time at a premium, advertising needs to focus not on catching people’s attention, but on buying their time. www.jwt.com